Friday, March 4

UPDATEI could've explained it better. By "the situation" I meant the police were clearing out the Zaman offices by the time I started watching the live feed. There wasn't any violence in the offices, just a lot of police, some in plain clothes, mulling around and what I guess were a few employees giving the police a piece of their mind but moving along as they were told. But toward the end, before the live feed broke off, what looked like a chief, in plain clothes, was waving the photographers back and looking as if he wanted to close a large door, shutting out the press. ***This is getting serious. RT's live taping of the police action, shown on the Spuptnik website and at YouTube, is now over or the government forces blocked further video-taping of the situation (it looked like things were headed that way toward the end of the taping) but here's the text report: Tear Gas, Water Cannon: Turkish Police Raid Zaman Newspaper in Istanbul

March 5, 2016 - 02:12 GMT

Sputnik

Late Friday, police entered the Zaman newspaper building in Istanbul, firing tear gas at protesters gathered outside. Zaman is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of the influential US-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey has designated Hizmet a terrorist organization, claiming that the group aims to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Gulen, once an Erdogan ally, now calls for civil conflict against the President/

The attack on the Zaman newspaper protesters comes as the Turkish government falls under increased international criticism for its attempts to crack down on journalistic dissent.

Protests followed a court ruling on Friday that the high-circulation newspaper would be taken over by government-run administrators. The court’s decision came with no explanation.

The protesters denounced the state takeover of Zaman press. One protester carried a placard stating, “We will fight for a free press.” The peaceful protesters were quickly shot with a water cannon and tear gas by Turkish police in an attempt to force them to disperse.

In response to the country’s planned seizure of the media outlet, Zaman said that Turkey is going through its “darkest and gloomiest days in terms of freedom of press.” The editor-in-chief declared that the move by the Turkish government represented nothing short of “the practical end of media freedom in Turkey.”

The US State Department maintains that Turkey is a valued ally of the United States and a critical partner in the war against Daesh and other terrorist organizations. On Friday, however, a State Department spokesperson said the takeover is “the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government.”

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